Parks and Recreation: "Article Two"Review

Patton Oswalt guest starred on this week's episode of Parks and Recreation, "Article Two," as a movie/comic book nerd who takes offense at Leslie's attempt to abolish some of the town's more out-dated, and offensive, laws . This leads to an amazing filibuster where Oswalt, playing Garth, improvised 8-minutes of sheer geek gold where he spoke about his ideas for J.J. Abrams' upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII and how it can incorporate the Marvel universe and end with Luke chopping Hannibal Lecter in half!

But the nerdiness didn't end there. Enter Ebay bidder "TallTyrionLannister" - aka Mr. Ben Wyatt - causing us not only to get a Game of Thrones shout out from Donna, but from Ben too when he had to correct Ann about the fact that Lannisters aren't magic users like the Warlocks of Qarth. "This is why we don't hang out," was what he got in return. Understandably.

"Article Two" was a fine episode, which made good use of Oswalt, but it didn't quite give me the full-on giggles like last week's "Animal Control." It contained not one, but two challenges; one between Leslie and Garth to see who could live in a colonial house, devoid of modern perks, the longest (feeling a bit "sitcom-y") and the second between Ron and Chris to see whose management style was more effective.

"I would work all night if it meant nothing got done," was Ron's motto heading into a mandatory manager workshop with Chris. The real winner here was April, who wound up manipulating both Ron and Chris into the silly wager ("My spirit blood is on your hands") so that she could exit stage left and eat pizza with Andy. Oh, and also commit some minor acts of theft. Leslie and Garth's bet was the one that felt a bit more contrived and in the end I don't even know how long the two of them spent in the house. Did it coincide, time-wise, with the rest of the episode?

"Article Two" also felt like it had difficulty fitting everyone into its three stories. Tom and Andy wound up orbiting Leslie's story, with Tom feeling uncomfortable and disgusted around so much old stuff and Andy just marveling at everything around him no matter what era it was from.

Not that there weren't a few laughs there. I loved it when Tom exclaimed "I think I'm going to be sick!" when he saw Garth's lack of emails/friends. Plus, Andy was amazing when he listened, with intent fascination, at Garth's ideas about Episode VII. Also, who can resist a naked Andy voluntarily running into the lake on Ted Day?

The Ann and Ben "Old Fashioned Pawn Shop Waffle Iron Bidding War" story was okay. At least they brought in the Pawn Shop nitrous-lover from "Halloween Surprise." Other than that, it wasn't the funniest of side stories. Plus, that story and the Ron/Chris story got wrapped up in a very long end-tag.

In the end, Leslie discovered that Garth probably wouldn't be so persnickety about things if he felt like he belonged somewhere. So she invited him to join the Pawnee Historical Society in order to draw him out of his hermit-like nerdsistence. I did like the fact that someone out there was able to best Leslie at colonial living, especially on an episode where she unwittingly made her husband and best friend feel inferior because of their inability to keep up with her obscene list of arbitrary anniversaries.

"Article Two" was good Parks, but not great Parks. Parts of it felt a little clunky, but, as always, it still managed to deliver an ample amount of gems. Huzzah!